Pandemic Times: Human Experiences and Responses

Humanities Center Seminar (HUMC 294)

Pandemic Times: Human Experiences and Responses is an interdisciplinary Humanities Center seminar course in which we discuss pandemics from exceptionally diverse academic approaches.

Though the events of 2020 are unprecedented in our lifetimes, over the course of human history, contagion, plagues and pandemics have impacted humanity in ways that have profoundly changed the shape of societies and contributed to scholarly and academic inquiry and knowledge. The University of San Diego, as a liberal arts institution and Changemaker campus, is deeply invested in learning and knowledge in order to confront humanity's urgent challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge of the pandemic transcends isolated disciplines and invites us all to work interdisciplinarily and critically reflect from many perspectives.

Sculpture of a man sitting on a park bench and wearing a blue mask that covers his nose, mouth and chin

Week 1: Pandemic Critical Literacy

Class Discussion

What’s a pandemic and how do we begin to understand its multifaceted and comprehensive impacts? View class discussion.

Speakers

Arietta Fleming-Davies, PhD | Department of Biology
Daniel Sheehan, PhD | Department of Physics and Biophysics
Alyson Ma, PhD | School of Business: Economics
Andy Tirrell, PhD, JD | Department of Political Science and International Relations
Channon Miller, PhD | Department of History

Readings
- Carter, Chelsey, and Ezelle Sanford. “The Myth of Black Immunity: Racialized Disease during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Black Perspectives. African American Intellectual History Society, April 3, 2020. https://www.aaihs.org/racializeddiseaseandpandemic/.
- Cook, J., Lewandowsky, S. (2011), The Debunking Handbook. St. Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland, November 5. ISBN 978-0-646-56812-6. www.skepticalscience.com/docs/Debunking_Handbook.pdf.
- Fetzer, Thiemo, Lukas Hensel, Johannes Hermle, and Chris Roth. “Coronavirus Perceptions and Economic Anxiety.” CEPR Policy Portal, VOX, March 21, 2020. https://voxeu.org/article/coronavirus-perceptions-and-economic-anxiety.
- Fox, Joe, Youjin Shin and Armand Emamdjomeh. “How Epidemics Like Covid-19 End (and How to End Them Faster).” Washington Post, February 19, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/health/coronavirus-how-epidemics-spread-and-end/.
- Kramarz, Teresa. “From Pandemics to Floods: Inequality as a Comorbidity.” Global Americans, June 11, 2020. https://theglobalamericans.org/2020/06/from-pandemics-to-floods-inequality-as-a-comorbidity/.
- Sheehan, Daniel P. "Living and Dying by the Exponential." Unpublished handout, July 2020.
- Yeats, William Butler. “The Second Coming.” Poetry Foundation. The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats, 1989. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming.

Week 2: Human Responses

Class Discussion

How do humans behave and respond to times of crisis and shock? View class discussion.

Speakers

Mary Barger, PhD, MPH, CNM, RN | Hanh School of Nursing and Health Science
Casey B. K. Dominguez, PhD | Department of Political Science and International Relations
Justine Rapp Farrell, PhD | School of Business: Marketing
Rebekah Wanic, PhD | Department of Psychological Sciences

Readings
- Danziger, Pamela N. “After Panic Buying Subsides, Will Coronavirus Make Lasting Changes to Consumer Psychology?” Forbes.com, March 8, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2020/03/08/first-comes-panic-buying-but-afterwards-will-the-coronavirus-leave-lasting-changes-to-consumer-psychology/.
- Griffin, Robert and John Sides. “Americans Have Increasingly Dismal Views of the Economy, but They Don’t Blame Trump.” The Monkey Cage at The Washington Post, March 20, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/20/americans-have-increasingly-dismal-views-economy-they-dont-blame-trump/.
- Marcus, Julia. “Quarantine Fatigue is Real.” The Atlantic, May 11, 2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/quarantine-fatigue-real-and-shaming-people-wont-help/611482/.
- Travers, Mark. “Cultural Psychology Research Suggests The U.S. May be Less Individualistic After the Coronavirus Pandemic.” Forbes.com, June 18, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2020/03/23/what-will-the-post-covid-19-world-look-like-lessons-from-cultural-psychology/.

Week 3: Morality and Mortality

Class Discussion

How have humans morally, ethically and artistically grappled with the increased awareness of mortality during pandemics--especially as our current age often obscures death from our daily lives? View class discussion.

Speakers

Brittany Asaro, PhD | Department of Languages, Cultures and Literatures: Italian
Terry Bird, PhD | Department of Biology
Jamall Calloway, PhD | Department of Theology and Religious Studies
Mike Kelly, PhD | Department of Philosophy

Readings
- Blaser, Martin J. Missing Microbes. Picador, 2014, pp. 41-49.
- Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron: Selected Tales, edited by Donald Beecher and Massimo Ciavolella, Broadview Press, 2017, pp. 29-34, 36-37.
- Camus, Albert. The Plague. Vintage, 1991, pp. 245, 247-48, 251-55.
View this collection of readings.

Week 4: Social Justice and Care

Class Discussion

How does the pandemic call us to consider how we protect the sick and vulnerable during a collective challenge? View class discussion.

Speakers

Corey Barnes, PhD | Department of Philosophy
Eileen Fry-Bowers, PhD, JD, RN, CPNP-PC | Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science
Valerie Hohman, PhD | Department of Biology
David Shirk, PhD | Department of Political Science and International Relations

Readings
- Ahmed, Faheem, Na’eem Ahmed, Christopher Pissarides, and Joseph Stiglitz. "Why Inequality Could Spread COVID-19.” The Lancet, April 2, 2020. https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2468-2667%2820%2930085-2
- Andrews, Edmund L. "The 1930s Depression Was ‘Great.’ This One Might Be Greater.” Stanford Business School, April 2, 2020. https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/1930s-depression-was-great-one-might-be-greater
- Daley, J. “‘Breakthrough’ COVID-19 Tests Are Currently Cheap, Fast—and Not Very Accurate.” Scientific American, May 7, 2020. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/breakthrough-covid-19-tests-are-currently-cheap-fast-and-not-very-accurate1/
- DelViscio, J. “The Science behind How Coronavirus Tests Work.” Scientific American, April 24, 2020. 9 minutes. https://www.scientificamerican.com/video/the-science-behind-how-coronavirus-tests-work/
- Miller, Franklin G. “Why I support Age-Related Rationing of Ventilators for Covid-19 Patients.” The Hastings Bioethics Forum, April 9, 2020. https://www.thehastingscenter.org/why-i-support-age-related-rationing-of-ventilators-for-covid-19-patients/
- Robson, D. “How Covid-19 is Changing the World’s Children.” BBC Future, June 3, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200603-how-covid-19-is-changing-the-worlds-children
- van Dorn, Aaron, Rebecca E Cooney, and Miriam L Sabin. "COVID-19 Exacerbating Inequalities in the US,” The Lancet. April 18-24, 2020; 395(10232): 1243-1244. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7162639/

Week 5: Dystopian Contagion Innovation

Class Discussion

How do pandemic times bring to light the interconnected nature and collective responsibilities of global citizenship? View class discussion.

Speakers

Amanda Petersen, PhD | Department of Languages, Cultures and Literatures: Spanish
Kate DeConinck, PhD | Department of Theology and Religious Studies
Vidya Nadkarni, PhD | Department of Political Science and International Relations
Caroline Baillie, PhD | Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering

Readings
- Block, Melissa. “'A Matter Of Common Decency': What Literature Can Teach Us About Epidemics,” National Public Radio. April 1, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/04/01/822579660/a-matter-of-common-decency-what-literature-can-teach-us-about-epidemics
- Bremmer, Ian. “Why We Need the World Health Organization, Despite Its Flaws,” Time Magazine. May 14, 2020. https://time.com/5836602/world-health-organization-coronavirus/
- Parvini, Sarah and Harriet Ryan. " Holy oil, masks and FaceTime: The coronavirus forces Catholics to adapt last rites" Los Angeles Times. April 11, 2020. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-11/last-rites-coronavirus-pandemic-catholics
- Toynbee Prize Foundation (Producer). (2020, June 4). Toynbee Coronavirus Series: Priscilla Wald on structural inequality and contagion [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChwFHGADyto
- Ulaby, Neda. “What Fictional Pandemics Can Teach Us About Real-World Survival,” National Public Radio. February 10, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/02/10/803458265/what-fictional-pandemics-can-teach-us-about-real-world-survival
- Vidal, John. "'Tip of the iceberg': is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?,” The Guardian. March 18, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/18/tip-of-the-iceberg-is-our-destruction-of-nature-responsible-for-covid-19-aoe
- "What Does the World Health Organization Do?" (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2020, from Council on Foreign Relations website: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-does-world-health-organization-do